Personal Details | |
Date of Birth | June 21, 1886 |
Place of Birth | Brookside, Colchester, Nova Scotia |
Country | Canada |
Marital Status | Single |
Next of Kin | William Hallett, father, Truro, Nova Scotia |
Trade / Calling | Locomotive Engineer |
Religion | Church of England |
Service Details | |
Regimental Number | 33353 |
Service Record | Link to Service Record |
Battalion | No 3 Canadian Field Ambulance |
Force | Canadian Expeditionary Force |
Branch | Canadian Medical Corps |
Enlisted / Conscripted | Enlisted |
Date of Enlistment | September 25, 1914 |
Age at Enlistment | 28 |
Theatre of Service | Europe |
Prisoner of War | No |
Survived War | Yes |
Death Details | |
Date of Death | November 11, 1956 |
Age at Death | 70 |
Buried At | Lake of the Woods Cemetery, Kenora, Ontario |
Plot | 46E-12-3 |
Although he gave Truro, Nova Scotia as his birth place, Clarence Beamish Hallett was born on 21 June 1886 in a small community just outside of Truro called Brookside. His father William Courtney Hallett was from Sussex, New Brunswick while his mother Florence Emma Cox was from Falmouth, Nova Scotia. The couple married on 5 April 1883 in Truro and took up farming in the Brookside/Truro area. Clarence had an older brother, Harold, and younger siblings Frank, Helen, Alice, Emma, and Ruth.
By the 1911 census Clarence had moved to Brandon, Manitoba and was working as a fireman for the Canadian Pacific Railway. Among the first to answer the call, having had his medical examination earlier that month, Clarence signed his attestation papers in Valcartier, Quebec on 25 September 1914. With brown eyes and dark hair, he was 28 years old. With the No 3 Canadian Field Ambulance that was organized at Valcartier that September, Private Clarence Hallett left Canada for overseas on the day of his enlistment.
By July of 1915, Clarence was in France serving with the No 3 Field Ambulance and was granted a 8 day leave in January of 1916. On 19 May 1916 during the battle of Hill 60, he sustained a serious shrapnel wound to his left foot, a telegram being sent to Truro to be phoned to family in Brookside.
Clarence spent two days at the No 10 Canadian Casualty Station at Dopenhinge, followed by six weeks at the No 3 General Hospital at Boulogne before being evacuated to England. Once in England he spent six weeks at the Bearwood Convalescent Hospital and then was transferred to the Epsom Convalescent Hospital for seven weeks. His injury was deemed as a permanent disability. By May of 1917 he was attached to Cadre, Canadian Discharge Depot at Buxton and appointed Acting Sergeant with pay in November. In March of 1918, Clarence Beamish Hallett was on his way back to Canada.
On 31 May 1918, in Truro, Clarence married Frances Miller (Mellor), eldest daughter of Philip and Christine Miller (Mellor) of Buxton. Probably having met at some point while Clarence was in Buxton, Frances arrived in Canada aboard the Aquitania on the 29th. After the marriage the couple returned to Brandon as Clarence continued to work for the Canadian Pacific Railway, being promoted to engineer in 1922. The couple gave birth to at least one child, a daughter Edna. In 1930 the family moved to Kenora, Ontario as a transfer with the CPR.
Predeceased by his father William in 1927, his mother Florence in 1946, both back in Nova Scotia, and his wife Frances in April of 1951 while in Brandon attending a funeral of an old friend (burial in Brandon), Clarence Hallett died on 11 November 1956 in Kenora. He is interred in the Lake of the Woods Cemetery. At the time of death he was survived by their daughter Edna and three of his sisters. In honour of his service during the war and his resulting wound, Clarence’s name is on the Canadian Pacific Railway WW1 Roll of Honour, List 12.
by Judy Stockham